Princeton vaccine reaches 90 percent of eligible

People walk at Princeton University in Princeton, N.J., Monday, Dec. 9, 2013. The Ivy League school has begun vaccinating nearly 6,000 students to try to stop an outbreak of type B meningitis in an unusual federal government-endorsed administration of a drug not generally approved for use in the United States. Seven students and one prospective student who was visiting campus have been stricken by potentially life-threatening type B meningococcal disease since March. None of the cases has been fatal. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)

Princeton University officials say more than 90 percent of the eligible students and staff received a meningitis vaccine this week as part of the university's effort to halt an outbreak.

Nearly 5,300 people chose to get the vaccine for the B strain of the meningitis bacteria. The vaccine is approved for use in Europe, Australia and Canada but is not yet approved for general use in the United States.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended the unusual step and the Food and Drug Administration approved it.

The shots were available for all undergraduates along with some graduate students and employees Monday through Thursday.

Those who received the vaccine are recommended to get booster doses in February.

Princeton University has begun vaccinating nearly 6,000 students to try to stop an outbreak of type B meningitis in an unusual federal government-endorsed administration of a drug not generally approved for ...

(HealthDay)—Despite recent outbreaks of bacterial meningitis at Princeton University and the University of California, Santa Barbara, U.S. heath officials said Monday that students are safe to travel home ...

Recent outbreaks of meningitis at Princeton University and other college campuses across the nation have students on alert, but there are ways to lessen the threat, says Madhuri Sopirala, MD, associate professor of infectious ...

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